Newsroom.

A shopper’s path to purchase no longer looks like the linear train track it once did. Now, each unique individual seems to be riding their own personal roller coaster to the point of sale—complete with loops, drops, or sudden lurches forward.

In the world of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), the path to purchase is especially complex. Shoppers in the market for FMCGs tend to visit at least three retailers before making a purchase. Even while looking at items on the shelf, they tend to pull out their mobile phones to explore competing products and compare prices.

In this context, how can brands increase ROI and in-store sales for their CPGs?

They can start by identifying the perfect audience. One way they can do this is by looking at stores with the biggest sales opportunities—and reaching out to consumers inside the store or nearby. Blis and IRi are working together to make this possible. We’ve combined our respective location and sales data to determine the relationship between foot traffic and sales. IRi identifies stores where a particular brand’s sales are underperforming compared to its total category sales. Then we identify devices near these stores that match the brand’s target audience. Together, these valuable insights enable advertisers to deliver highly targeted ads to pre-profiled anonymized mobile devices.

Let’s say a certain women’s shampoo isn’t exactly flying off the shelves at a particular store. How can advertisers boost sales of that specific item at that specific store? First, they can identify their target audience, assume in this case an audience of women ages 24 to 54 is who they want to target. Then, they can deliver an ad for the shampoo brand to that audience of women who live nearby and are likely to go in-store and purchase it.

In order to drive those women into the stores from the street, and head to the cash register with the shampoo in hand, advertisers will need to craft creatives that do more than just expose the consumer to the product; they need to entice the individual to make the journey as well as the purchase. For example, the shampoo advertisers can offer consumers a 10% discount on the product when they buy at the target location. Or, they can deliver a helpful map to help guide that person to the store. The end result? Sales lift and increased ROI.

Brands should remember that when assessing the success of their campaigns, they need to look at uplift. Uplift in sales will tell advertisers exactly how lucrative their campaign has turned out to be. Foot traffic uplift, on the other hand, can tell brands how many people visited the store as a result of their efforts.

No matter where a consumer sits on their roller coaster ride to purchase, advertisers should come along: They’ll make the journey a whole lot smoother and faster.

Be sure to tune in next week to our last blog post in the Shopper Marketer series, we’ll be examining the following question: Do you know what aisle shoppers are in?

Christina Rasmussen Stella

Senior Sales Director | Blis
Christina is currently responsible for overseeing agency holding company, Publicis and OMG, and growing large brand accounts from the client-direct side. She manages a team of 2 senior sales managers who are focused on driving revenue from various agency and direct accounts like P&G, AT&T, Pepsi, Verizon, Chase and more.